Deep Breath
by crazyundeadfairy
Summary: Nick's two lives clash. Follows Out of Focus. Spoilers for Grave Danger.


Warrick slumped further into the plastic chair, hoping to find a more comfortable position. He'd been sitting in the same chair for a few hours and the parts of him that weren't sore were numb. But he wasn't moving. Warrick had waited almost everyone out—even Nick's parents –and he wasn't leaving until he was sure Nick would be okay.

The only person left was Catherine, probably because she was feeling guilty as he was about what had happened to Nick.

"You should go home, Warrick. You weren't made for sitting in those little chairs," Catherine commented from her own uncomfortable seat on the other side of the bed.

"I'm not leaving, Cath," Warrick said, shaking his head resolutely. "You should go home to Lindsey, though. Get some sleep."

"What about you? You look about ready to drop."

His lips twitched briefly at that. "I'm gonna stay here till Nicky wakes up. I can catch a few zzz's on this chair if I need to."

The look Warrick got told him exactly what Catherine thought about that, but she kept quiet. If it wasn't for Lindsey, Warrick knew that Catherine wouldn't be leaving either. Having no one to go home to, Warrick intended to stay as long as he could.

Catherine's expression softened as she leaned over Nick and pressed a light kiss to his forehead. "Sleep sweet, Nicky." Walking around the bed, she squeezed Warrick's shoulder on her way to the door. "You too, Warrick."

"See you later, Cath," Warrick called over his shoulder.

When he turned back, all of his attention was on Nick. Only a flip of a coin kept their situations from being reversed. Not that Warrick thought he would have made it out of the box. He wasn't as strong as Nick; not by a long shot. He wouldn't have shot out the light.

Suddenly needing to assure himself that Nick was still alive, Warrick reached out and slipped his hand into Nick's lax grip. He hadn't expected the other man to squeeze back.

"Nicky?" Warrick whispered, leaning forward. "You awake?"

Nick sucked in a deep breath then, "Rick."

Sliding to the edge of the chair, Warrick leaned forward, resting his free hand on the bed close to Nick's head. "Hey there, Nicky, welcome back. You had us worried there for a bit."

Eyes still closed, Nick's head flopped towards him. "Sorry."

"Hey, Nicky, no. Don't you go apologizing to any of us," Warrick said immediately, shaking his head even though Nick wouldn't see him. "You haven't done anything wrong."

At first the fact that Nick stayed so quiet afterwards worried him. He knew that Nick was liable to fade in and out of consciousness, the doctor had warned them about that, but it was quite another thing to actually see it. Warrick was sliding his fingers towards Nick's hair when suddenly dark eyes fluttered open. He was glad that he'd insisted the lights were kept dim after seeing the way Nick had been flinching away from bright lights since he'd gotten out of the box. Even in it, Nick had been trying to hide away from the light. The light they had nearly killed him with.

Nick's lips twitched a little bit in an attempted smile before he yawned out the words, "Thanks fer stayin'."

"Wouldn't be anywhere else, buddy," he whispered back, squeezing Nick's hand briefly.

And it was completely true. Catherine wasn't the only one who'd tried to convince him to go home and get some rest. Sara, Greg, Brass, Grissom, even Nick's parents had all tried to talk him into leaving the hospital. But he couldn't. After what had happened in the ER and seeing just how desperate Nick was to keep those strange hands away from him, Warrick hadn't left his side. He'd stayed with Nick the whole time, talking him through his terror and doing what he could to relieve his own. Another few seconds and the sound of a gunshot would have been haunting him for the rest of his life.

While he watched Nick sleep, Warrick's fingers played with the quarter that had put Nick in the ground. Tempted as he was to just throw the thing as far from him as possible, for some twisted reason he couldn't make himself do it. On the way to the nursery Warrick had even had the Denali's window open and the coin in his hand, ready to toss it out. But he kept it. A morbid token of what could have been.

Allowing his left hand to remain in Nick's loose grip, Warrick shuffled around a bit to find a comfortable way to sit. It was a useless effort, his twitching doing nothing to make him more comfortable. In the end he just gave up and consigned himself to another sleepless night.

He must have dozed off at least a little bit, though, because a sound at the door had him reaching for his gun. The fact that it was Nick's mom standing there made him feel instantly contrite.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you," Gillian Stokes apologized as she crossed towards the bed. "I just couldn't sleep and thought I'd come sit with Nick."

"He woke up once for a few minutes, but other than that he's just been sleeping," Warrick told her, flexing his shoulders in hopes of relieving some of the tension. A part of him knew that he should take his hand away from Nick's, but with the way Nick's fingers were quivering around his he couldn't bring himself to.

"It's just as well that he gets some rest," Gillian agreed, crossing over to the other side of the bed to stroke her fingers lightly through Nick's hair. "I can stay the rest of the night if you wanted to go home and get some sleep yourself. You've gone above and beyond what most people would do for a co-worker."

"Nicky's my best friend," Warrick corrected her, his fingers tightening briefly around Nick's. "Besides, I promised him I'd stay."

"I'm sure Nick would understand if you wanted to go home and sleep in a proper bed."

Warrick nodded his head, a smile quirking his lips. "You're right, Nick would understand. But this isn't about me. It's about Nick and what he needs right now. So if I have to sit in this chair all night so he feels safe enough to sleep that's what I'll do."

Nick's mom pursed her lips, looking for all the world like she wanted to say something else, but kept quiet. Warrick knew what she was thinking, though. Her eyes were fixed on their hands. Warrick himself hadn't thought anything of it. It was just a way to make sure Nick knew he wasn't alone.

"He has his family," she insisted, staring him head on.

"For now. But you'll have to go back to Texas eventually and I'll still be here," Warrick pointed out, calm as could be. "For whatever Nicky needs."

Gillian looked less than impressed by this, but didn't back down. She stayed right where she was, stroking Nick's hair.

"Are you so certain that Nick will stay here in Las Vegas? Look at everything that's happened to him since he came here. Stalkers, being thrown out of windows, held at gun point and now this. Nick is better off in Dallas."

Warrick kept quiet, knowing that Nick wouldn't agree with his mother. Nick was stubborn and independent and it would take a lot more than Walter Gordon to make him go back to Texas with his tail between his legs. Warrick kept those thoughts to himself, though, not wanting to get into an argument with her in Nick's hospital room. It was better just to sit quiet and let her think that she'd got her way.

Suddenly the hand holding his twitched. Nick didn't wake up, at least not completely, but his shoulders, head and hips twisted slightly to the left. Towards Warrick. Warrick could have kissed the other man then if Nick had been awake enough to realize what he'd just done.

"Looks like Nicky's staying in Vegas."

* * *

It was a very tense hour while Warrick waited for Gillian to concede defeat and leave. He didn't have anything against her—it was obvious that she loved her son –but in all honestly she didn't seem to know Nick very well. At least not the Nick that he knew. No way was Nick going to leave Vegas. It was his home.

There was a snuffling from the bed and a tug on his hand. Sitting up straight, Warrick leaned forward to better see Nick's face. The panicked moan had him out of his seat and leaning over the bed.

"Nicky? C'mon, man, time to wake up," Warrick encouraged, pressing his free hand next to Nick's head on the thin pillows.

Whatever sedative was still in his system was making that difficult, though. Nick was struggling against something and even if his movements were sluggish there was effort behind them. She didn't say a word, but Warrick heard the clacking of her shoes as Gillian rushed out of the room.

"Nicky, man, you're in a hospital. You're not in that damn box anymore so just open your eyes. C'mon, Nicky."

The whimper became a scream then and Nick's whole body arched like someone had tied a string around his chest and was pulling up Trying to pull his left hand from Nick's was useless; the other man had it in a fierce grip. Knowing that he needed to wake Nick up and not sure of the best way to do it, Warrick leaned in close and shouted Nick's name.

A second later Nick's eyes were open and the scream turned into a rapid mix of pants and sobs. Nick's arm came around Warrick's shoulders, yanking him into a desperate, lopsided embrace.

"Easy there, Nick. I gotcha," Warrick murmured, lips against Nick's temple. "Nothing's gonna hurt you here."

Nick had him in a death grip, squeezing him tight. Even with only one arm all those hours at the gym gave him a strong hold. Adrenaline made him stronger still. At least for a short while. The whole time Nick was in that panicked state Warrick started talking nonsense to him, trying to calm him down before the doctor felt the need to medicate him again. Warrick wouldn't have been surprised if it was all the drugs in his system that had caused Nick's nightmare.

"You'll need to step out of the way so that I can examine Mr. Stokes," the doctor who's name Warrick couldn't remember said, placing a hand on his shoulder.

Warrick started to do just that, only intending to sit up, until Nick's frightened hiccup stopped him. Nick had his fingers twisted into Warrick's shirt and there was no way he was letting go anytime soon.

"How about letting me sit up, Nicky," Warrick murmured in his ear. "I won't go anywhere. Just sit up enough so that the doc can check you out."

At the mention of a doctor, Nick gripped him even tighter, mumbling things that Warrick couldn't make out. When Warrick tried to sit up a second time, Nick moved with him, clinging to him as tight as could be. Warrick could just imagine the picture they made for the doctor and Gillian; Nick huddled against him, forehead burrowed under Warrick's jaw, arm around his waist, and Warrick with his arm around Nick's shoulder, fingers disappearing into his dark hair. Their left hands were still twisted together.

Obviously having dealt with someone in Nick's state of mine before, the doctor—James Blake his ID tag read –made a show of checking over Nick's chart; giving the frantic man time to calm down. It took several minutes, but eventually Nick's breathing slowed and he straightened so that he was sitting on his own. The one thing he didn't do was let go of Warrick's hand.

"How are you feeling, Mr. Stokes?" Dr. Blake asked, pressing two fingers to the inside of Nick's wrist to take his pulse. "Is there any discomfort?"

Nick shook his head, watching the doctor's every move with teary dark eyes. "I just feel kinda numb. And exhausted."

"The anti-venom combined with a mild sedative," the doctor explained, making a note on Nick's chart. "I'm just going to check your pupil reaction now, all right?"

There was a slight hesitation before Nick nodded his head. "Yeah. Sure."

Even prepared, Nick still flinched as the light was shone into his left eye. His whole body began to shake, but neither Nick nor the doctor made any mention of it. Neither did Warrick outside of squeezing Nick's hand. He had a feeling that Nick was going to be having adverse reactions to bright lights for a while. Warrick himself wasn't too fond of them either. He was the one who'd spent the most time in front of the computer keeping the light on in the box.

"All right, your vitals look okay. Your pulse is a little rapid, but that's expected after a nightmare," Dr. Blake rambled off as he made some new notations on Nick's chart. "We're going to keep you on the anti-venom for a few more hours just to be on the safe side. And your sedative has nearly run its course, but it's up to you if you want another round."

"No," Nick said at the same time his mother said, "Yes."

Warrick kept silent. He agreed with Nick for the simple fact that he couldn't stomach the thought of watching Nick struggle against the sedative to wake up a second time. Better he just sleep naturally and wake up when the nightmares came. It would gut him each time Nick shot up screaming, but at least he could help once Nick was awake.

"I really think that you should reconsider, Nick," Gillian said in the ensuing silence. "You need to rest and the sedatives will help you sleep better."

Nick shook his head resolutely. "I couldn't wake up and that was almost as bad as being in the box again." Turning towards the doctor he repeated, "No sedatives."

Dr. Blake made a note of that. "I'll make sure the nurses know. Now Mr. Stokes needs to get some rest so I'll have to ask that, at the most, he only have one person in the room until visiting hours start up again."

The man made a quick retreat then, leaving mother, son and best friend alone. Only two of them would be left in a few minutes and Warrick knew that he should do the honorable thing and step aside. Nick would be in good hands with his mother. Except Warrick couldn't make himself say the words.

"Mom, why don't you go back to the hotel," Nick mumbled around a yawn. "All I'm gonna do is sleep and these chairs aren't that comfortable. Rick'll keep me outta trouble till you come back. Hopefully with better food than they serve here."

Even though she looked like she had been punched in the stomach, Gillian nodded her head. "If that's what you want. Your sisters will be flying in today and your brother said he'd be here tonight. Hopefully by then the doctors will know when we can bring you home."

Nick was blinking owlishly by then and leaned back against the pillows. Taking that as her hint to leave, Gillian leaned over and brushed a kiss against his forehead.

"Your father and I will be back later, Nick. Try to get some sleep."

"'Kay."

"I love you, Nick."

The exhausted man's lips twitched in a brief smile. "Love you too."

The look Warrick got then would have had a lesser man shaking, but he just smiled, only glaring when her back was to him. No way was she gonna talk Nick into leaving Vegas. Nick might not have been coherent enough to see under what she'd said, but Warrick was. Gillian Stokes certainly hadn't been talking about Nick's townhouse when she said they'd take him home.

"You can go too if you'd like," Nick murmured a few minutes later. "You've gotta be exhausted."

"I'll hold," Warrick said, glancing down to meet Nick's half-opened gaze.

"Yer a shitty liar."

"Shouldn't you be sleeping?"

"I will be when you get in here."

That gave Warrick pause. "Come again?"

"The bed's big enough for both of us and you've earned a decent night's sleep." Nick paused then, swallowing hard. "'Sides, this way I'll know you're close and the nightmares might not be as bad."

He'd have had to be completely heartless to say no to Nick then. Nick was doing everything he could to avoid meeting Warrick's eyes and his lips were pulled to the side as he nervously chewed on his bottom lip.

"I'll even be a gentleman and let you hog the covers," Warrick chuckled as he shifted about until he was leaning back against the pillows alongside Nick. He rolled onto his side when it became obvious that Nick had no intention of letting go of his hand.

"Thanks, Rick."

"Nothin' to thank me for, Nicky. Just get some sleep."


End file.
